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Louis Joseph Marquis de Montcalm Biography

Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm Image

MONTCALM de Saint-Véran, Louis Joseph, Marquis de (1712-59). A distinguished French general. He was born at Candiac, Dear Nimes, Feb. 29, 1712, entered the army in 1721, and became a captain in 1725. He served in Italy and Germany for many years and was wounded five times at the battle of Piacenza in 1746. In May, 1756, he was sent to Canada to command the French forces. He captured Fort Ontario at Oswego in August of the same year. The next year he forced the capitulation of Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George, with an English garrison of 2500 men, capturing 42 guns and a large amount of stores. In 1758 he defended Fort Ticonderoga with 3600 Canadians against General Abercromby at the head of 15,000 English, repulsing the latter after a determined attack (July 8). The loss of this battle would have meant the complete downfall of French power in America. Lack of troops, ammunition, and provisions, and the large reënforcements of the English, obliged Montcalm to retire all his forces the following year to Quebec, which was menaced by a powerful army under General Wolfe. Ill supported by the French government and forced to cope with disaffection among the authorities in Canada, Montcahn prepared to meet the inevitable outcome with a heroic determination which has lent so much romantic interest to his last days. The struggle around Quebec began July 31, 1759, and the siege continued for six weeks, until Wolfe's scaling of the Heights of Abraham above the city tempted the French to a battle in the field, in which the English were victorious, Sept. 13, 1759, Wolfe fell dead in the moment of victory, and Montcalm was borne from the field mortally wounded and died the following day. The city was surrendered a few days after his death, and its fall signalized the end of the French power in Canada. In 1827 Governor Dalhousie, of Canada, caused a monument to be erected in Quebec to the joint honor of the two brave generals. The best work on Montcalm is by Parkman, "Montcalm and Wolfe," in France and England in North America, part vii (2 vols., Boston, 188.5). Consult also: Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada française (Paris, 1877); Falgairolle, Montcalm devant la postérité (ib., 1886); Doughty, The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, (Quebec, 1901).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 188-189.